Constitution Hill has been ruled out of the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival by trainer Nicky Henderson.
The 2023 Champion Hurdle winner, who had failed in three of his last four starts before winning on the Flat at Southwell last week, had been the subject of big market swings before being ruled out on Wednesday.
Nicky Henderson told Unibet: “Michael Buckley and I, not surprisingly, have spent a lot of time looking at ourselves and thinking about the future of Constitution Hills and have unfortunately come to the conclusion that I will not be competing in the Unibet Champion Hurdle next week.”
“Last Friday night was a magical occasion for all of us. We are so grateful for his popularity and the love and admiration everyone has shown for Conrad, as he is affectionately known here. For him and for us. However, and I think it was a great night for British horse racing. We are very aware of the public perception and the potential impact of overcoming the hurdle and we feel it would be unfair to ask him and Nico to do it again.”
“On Friday night, he showed that he has a new career ahead of him and one that could take us all to new heights. We would like to thank the thousands of Constitution Hills supporters and fans who shared their sentiments with us and gave us advice on how we should proceed. I have to say the polls were as close to 50-50 as possible.
“This is a sad day for many of us, especially the National Hunt fraternity who wanted to see Constitution Hill reclaim his crown, and a sad day for everyone here, especially Nico, who has spent so much time trying to resolve the jump issue.
“But he leaves the world of jumping safely and is happy and ready for the next chapter. It has been an incredible journey so far and Michael has had to endure some dark days, but of course he has enjoyed the highs and thrills of an extraordinary horse. Cheltenham have kindly invited Constitution Hill to their Champion Hurdle Day Parade to give all National Hunt supporters the chance to say goodbye.”
Dan Skelton’s The New Lion was shortened to 2/1 at the top of the market for Cheltenham Festival’s opening day feature, with Brighterdaysahead also supported at 3/1.
